Toy stardom: 9-year-old inspires American Girl doll

Among her collection of American Girl dolls, there's one that sometimes gives 9-year-old Madeline O'Neil the creeps if she looks at it too long.

Michael Morton

Among her collection of American Girl dolls, there's one that sometimes gives 9-year-old Madeline O'Neil the creeps if she looks at it too long.

That would be Mia, the one modeled after her.

"When I stare at it, it makes me feel weird," Madeline said Friday as she sat at a kitchen table with her mom, Patty O'Neil, and aunt, Sandy Montesino. "It doesn't really feel like me."

Madeline's path to toy stardom can be traced to a regional beauty contest that Montesino signed her up for when the girl was 6. After her daughter placed second, Patty O'Neil contacted a Waltham talent agency, and commercials soon followed for Dannon Danimals yogurt, Martha Stewart Living magazine, the Red Sox and Six Flags theme parks.

Seeking a model for American Girls' limited-run doll for 2008, a company illustrator spotted Madeline on her agent's Web site and contacted the family in February 2007.

"I just freaked out," said Madeline, who already owned eight of the company's dolls.

Under the cover of secrecy, the Ashland girl and her mother traveled to New York City to pose for the illustrator, putting in a week's worth of four-hour days over the course of several months. Often, Patty O'Neil said, the illustrator would call them in because he needed a minor change to one of the poses, such as a foot lifted just so.

Finally, after months of not being to share the news with friends and neighbors and kept somewhat in the dark themselves, Montesino and the O'Neils saw Mia unveiled on Oprah Winfrey's show at the end of the year.

In the end, designers gave the doll red hair instead of Madeline's blonde tresses and added a few freckles. While Mia's facial features appear to match other American Dolls, a painting of Madeline was used in the corresponding book, video game and ad campaign.

"It seems so weird that people all over America are looking at the doll right now and don't know who it is," she said.

Madeline was mobbed, however, when she went to buy Mia at the the company's New York City store earlier this year, at least once Montesino told fellow shoppers who her niece was.

"It was my first time," Madeline said of meeting her fans. "It was getting weird."

While she's still in the midst of her American Girl experience, Madeline and her mother said the next step is auditioning for a remake of "Little Women" that will be shot in the state. In the past, Madeline has been able to shop at Toys 'R' Us as a reward after each gig, with the bulk of her money going into a college fund. But this time, she has a new treat in mind.

"I want a puppy," she said.

While O'Neil jokingly calls her daughter Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan, she said she turns down jobs when they interfere with school. She doesn't want to pressure Madeline into continuing with modeling and acting.

"All she has to say is, 'I don't want to do it,' and no problem," Patty O'Neil said.